North Korea’s jamming of GPS signals across the border with South Korea continued Sunday for the 10th consecutive day, the military said.
GPS jamming was detected in the northern part of Gangwon Province early Sunday morning, according to the military.
The latest jamming attacks began near the northwestern islands before they began spreading to the northern parts of Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces last Thursday.
The military has said the jamming has involved weaker signals than in May and June and lasted for shorter periods over various directions.
The jamming appears to be a North Korean military exercise in responding to the possible appearance of drones, according to the military.
New landmark in border town A torch-shaped observation tower is dedicated in the border county of Cheorwon, about 75 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Nov. 4, 2024, symbolizing the yearning for inter-Korean reunification. (Yonhap)
The locals are concerned that these balloon launches could lead to a North Korean provocation against them which is why there has been so much pushback:
A South Korean activist group called off its plan to launch balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North across the heavily fortified frontier on Thursday after facing local opposition and police prevention due to potential security risks to residents.
Choi Sung-ryong, head of the Association of the Families of Those Abducted by North Korea, announced that the organization would cancel its decision to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North during a press conference held at the National Memorial for Abductees during the Korean War in the western border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The group had initially planned to float some 100,000 copies of the leaflet made of plastic — containing photos and descriptions of six abductee victims — attached to large balloons along with one-dollar bills on this day.
You can read more at the link, but the activists are now saying they are going to instead fly drones into North Korea instead which will actually be more provocative than the balloons.
The ROK is informing North Korean Soldiers along the DMZ that they could potentially become cannon fodder in Putin’s war in Ukraine:
The South Korean loudspeakers blaring at the Demilitarized Zone are causing pain for the residents of the nearby Unification Village, the village chief told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. Since Monday, the South Korean armed forces’ “Voice of Freedom” has been broadcasting around-the-clock to North Koreans that their troops are deployed to Russia to support the invasion of Ukraine, Lee Wanbae said.
“Not only me but also my villagers have been hearing the anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts all day long every day,” he said. “The military broadcasts it from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. … and it is very loud. So, our ears are starting to hurt.” Unification Village, in a buffer zone just outside the DMZ, is just over a mile from the no-man’s land dividing the two countries.
In my opinion the blowing up of the two roads by North Korea is more performative for the ROK and international media than anything of substance between the two Koreas. I doubt President Yoon is going to lose any sleep over this:
North Korea blew up the northern sections of two inter-Korean roads, Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to sever all ties with South Korea and formalize a hostile, two-state system on the Korean Peninsula.
“North Korea exploded parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) at around noon,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a message sent to reporters.
Gyeongui Road, which linked the two Koreas in the western part of the country, was primarily used by businesspeople operating factories at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North. Meanwhile, Donghae Road along the east coast was utilized by tourists visiting North Korea’s Mount Geumgang.
The JCS said it fired several shots south of the MDL after the road explosions, adding it has intensified its readiness and surveillance posture. South Korea’s military had already observed on Monday that Pyongyang was preparing to destroy the road.
You can read more at the link, but these two roads have not been used for many years after the closing of the Kaesong Industrial Complex near Panmunjom and the ending of tours to the Kumgang Resort on the east coast. So blowing them up is meaningless and if for some reason one of these two inter-Korean projects were to get restarted the road can easily be repaired probably with ROK money.
North Korea had nothing to lose from this provocation and gained yet again wide media attention which means they achieved thier objective with this stunt.
This wasn’t a very well thought out plan because it had no chance of ever working:
A former defector, unhappy with life in the South, stole a 25-seat shuttle bus this week and attempted to cross a bridge into North Korea before he was apprehended by guards. The defector, 35, was caught at 12:55 a.m. Monday on the Tongil Bridge, or Unification Bridge, in Paju city, by South Korean military guards and turned over to civilian police, according to military and police spokespeople Tuesday.
Privacy laws prohibit authorities from publicly identifying most people under arrest in South Korea. The defector was held on suspicion of theft and violating the National Security Act, a police spokesman said. The defector found the key to the minibus in a company garage in Munsan town, crawled through a window near the driver’s seat and drove nearly three miles to the bridge’s south checkpoint, a spokesman for North Gyeonggi Provincial Police said by phone.
The lane toward the checkpoint was heavily guarded, so the unidentified defector drove in the opposing lane onto the bridge, the spokesman said. Bypassing the checkpoint and ignoring guards trying to stop him, the defector drove another 900 yards before hitting a barricade in front of the north checkpoint, where soldiers stopped him, the spokesman said.
Here is the newest addition to the Odusan Observatory:
Oh Eun Jeong, a poet who fled North Korea in 2009, left behind a younger sister for whom she still longs. Oh, profiled by The Washington Post in 2018 as one of many young North Korean defectors thriving with new lives in the South, said that longing motivated her to write poetry. “I think about my sister every day,” she told Stars and Stripes by phone Aug. 8. “Knowing she’s still there while I’m here makes my heart heavy.” Oh and other former North Koreans now have a place to bring those sentiments. On Aug. 1, the South Korean Ministry for Unification unveiled a monument to those who escaped the North or lost their lives in the attempt. “This monument gives me a place to express that longing, even if I can’t be with her,” Oh said.
N. Korean casualties in DMZ mine accidents This undated photo, provided by South Korea’s defense ministry on July 17, 2024, shows North Korean soldiers carrying mines in the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas. According to the ministry, there have been many casualties due to approximately 10 accidental mine explosions while North Korean soldiers worked to bury mines in recent months. (Yonhap)
This is another way for South Korea to respond to increasing provocative behavior from North Korea:
South Korea’s army held live-fire artillery practice near the border with North Korea for the first time in six years, and the first such move since suspending a ban on live drills in June. The artillery drill was conducted at an unspecified firing range within three miles of the Military Demarcation Line, the actual border dividing the Korean Peninsula, according to a news release Tuesday from the South Korean army.
The border is inside the 2½-mile-wide Demilitarized Zone. Numerous air and artillery ranges are scattered near the border with North Korea. U.S. and South Korean troops conduct drills throughout the year at the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Complex roughly 16 miles south of the border. Tuesday’s artillery drill focused on South Korea’s “response capabilities and fire preparedness” in the event of North Korean provocations, the release said. The army said it plans to regularly conduct artillery drills around the area for the foreseeable future.
This is just probably busy work to create fortifications to stress the South Korean threat to the North Korean Soldiers:
North Korea’s military has been carrying out unexplained construction inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, according to a military source Saturday.
“Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging up the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ,” the source said.
The source added it was unclear whether these activities indicate an intention to build a long wall north of the MDL or simply to establish defensive structures at specific points.
